The Colorado Caucus is the electoral process used in

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

to appoint candidates for certain political offices and start the process of electing new leaders for political party leadership. It takes the form of a series of precinct

caucus A caucus is a group or meeting of supporters or members of a specific political party or movement. The exact definition varies between different countries and political cultures. The term originated in the United States, where it can refer to ...

es, meetings of registered electors within a precinct who are members of a particular major

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

. The purpose of precinct caucuses is to elect precinct committee persons and delegates to county assemblies, including those that elect delegates to the presidential nominating conventions.

History

The

Colorado legislature The Colorado General Assembly is the state legislature of the State of Colorado. It is a bicameral legislature consisting of the Senate and House of Representatives that was created by the 1876 state constitution. Its statutes are codified i ...

adopted the caucus system in a special session called by Governor John F. Shafroth in August 1910 as part of a package of progressive reforms. It was seen as a way to limit the power of party bosses and to attract more grassroots involvement. The caucus system was abolished in favor of presidential

primaries Primary elections or primaries are elections held to determine which candidates will run in an upcoming general election. In a partisan primary, a political party selects a candidate. Depending on the state and/or party, there may be an "open pri ...

in 1992 but restored in 2002 with the defeat of Amendment 29 and cost considerations. The fully restored Colorado Caucus was in 2004.

Strengths and weaknesses

Research carried out in

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

indicates that a well-designed caucus system "brings candidates’ arguments, strengths, and weaknesses into the open". However, it has recently been claimed that the system "is a poor way to begin the party nominating process in Colorado", in that it "is complicated and often disenfranchises all but the most politically motivated participants." Others feel that the Colorado Caucus is the best tool for the common person, the average, ordinary citizen, to serve in elected public office. The late Sue O'Brien, Editorial Page Editor of the Denver Post, whom some called "the conscience of Colorado," was particularly fond of the Colorado Caucus because it creates repeated opportunities for average, ordinary people to take the first steps toward becoming political leaders.

Regulation

Over 3,000 caucuses are held in neighborhoods across Colorado. They are open to the public. Some now meet in homes accessible to disabled people, but many meet in public spaces such as schools. The Colorado Secretary of State is charged with the responsibility of providing information about the system. Caucuses are regulated by Colorado law, but expenses for them are paid by the major political parties that use the system. Only the Republican Party and the Democratic Party have enough registered voters to use the caucus-assembly system.

2016 caucuses

On March 1, 2016 (

Super Tuesday Super Tuesday is the United States presidential primary election day in February or March when the greatest number of U.S. states hold primary elections and caucuses. Approximately one-third of all delegates to the presidential nominatin ...

), each of the two major parties (determined by a number of votes in the previous election) held a caucus in each precinct. Members of both the Democratic and Republican parties chose delegates to represent their precincts at the county conventions. Additionally, Democratic party members participated in a presidential preference poll which determined the allocation of delegates based on their stated intent to vote for a given presidential candidate. Regardless of party, delegates are bound neither to their stated intent nor to the preference given by the population they were chosen by. On the weekend before March 1 caucuses, both major political parties had state chairs who unilaterally announced they wanted to see an end to the Colorado Caucus, the system that had been entrusted to their care. Partly as a result of poor leadership, the Colorado Caucus this year was chaotic.

Propositions 107 and 108

Widespread support for 2016 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders created chaos in the 2016 Colorado presidential primary caucuses, which were unprepared for the influx of first-time participants. Propositions 107 and 108 were proposed (and ultimately passed) in 2016 in large part as a response to this chaos. Proposition 107 was passed on November 8, 2016, in Colorado with 1,701,599 votes for (64.09%) and 953,246 votes against (35.91%), resulting in a Yes vote intended to restore presidential primary elections held before the end of March and make them open in Colorado. Proposition 108 was passed on November 8, 2016, in Colorado with 1,398,577 votes for (53.27%) and 1,227,117 votes against (46.73%), resulting in a Yes vote to allow unaffiliated electors to vote in the primary election of a major political party without declaring an affiliation with that political party and to permit a political party, in some circumstances, to select candidates by committee or convention, rather than through a primary election. There was almost no organized opposition to these two measures, and as a result, they easily passed. Implementing them has proven to be difficult.

References